Toothpick Fish Lab

Phenotype and Genotypes

Green = GG, Gr, Gy
Red= rr
Yellow= yy
Orange= ry

G=green allele
r=red allle
y=yellow allele

My Data Charts

First Generation:
six green fish, 2 red fish, 3 yellow fish, one orange fish

Second Generation:
6 Green fish, 3 Red fish, 0 yellow fish, 0 orange fish

Third Generation:
five green fish, three red fish, 0 yellow fish, one orange fish

Fourth Generation:
5 Green Fish, 2 red fish, 0 yellow fish, 2 orange fish

Survivors of the Environmental Disaster:
0 Green fish, 2 red fish, 0 yellow fish, 2 orange fish


The toothpick lab taught me some important concepts about evolution and adaptation. Furthermore, the environment plays a large role in the chances of survival for different types of fish. For example, in this lab the fish live in an environment where it is “very green and lush with lots of seaweed and algae.” Therefore, the green fish are camouflaged and blend well with the background. The yellow and orange fish hide well, too. As a result, they are able to avoid predators because they cannot be seen. On the other hand, yellow fish are conspicuous prey and stand no chance for survival; thus, they are not able to reproduce. When looking at my data chart, it’s obvious that the green fish are a large part of the fish population because they are the dominant to the red and yellow alleles. On the other hand, there were two red fish in the first generation because they were the recessive allele; this was the same for the yellow fish. Moreover, there was only one orange fish in the first generation because the parents had one red allele, which is incompletely dominant to the yellow allele. In addition, we also had three yellow fish for the first generation, and since predators ate them, there were no yellow fish in the second generation. However, there were three red fish and six green fish in this next generation (second generation). As previously mentioned, there were more green fish because they are the dominant allele. I was not surprised when there were five green fish in the third and fourth generation and about three red fish in these generations as well. Nonetheless, after the harmful factory waste is dumped into the fish’s stream, it kills most of the algae and seaweed, leaving the green fish well-exposed and vulnerable to predators. On the contrary, the new rocks and sand are now a good camouflage for the red, yellow and orange fish. Consequent to this environmental disaster, there no green fish survived for another generation since they weren’t able to reproduce, and only two red fish survived for the last generation of recorded fish.
All things considered, the environment plays a major role in any organism’s life, such as the noxious waste that was dumped into the fish’s stream. If this experimental design were to be changed, perhaps there was a predator that only ate red fish, and then it would affect the outcome of the other fish. For example, after there the predator ate all of the red fish, there would also be no more orange fish because they have one red allele. As a result, the green and yellow fish would flourish in the new habitat free of red fish.